Communication networks may experience traffic congestion events. Traffic congestions are more likely to occur in networks using data encryption techniques and are detrimental to transmissions carrying time-sensitive information that, unless delivered within a specific time interval, may become outdated or invalid. In operation, to eliminate possibility of sending outdated information, such transmissions should be either delivered on time or terminated, i.e., not executed.
In military networks and some commercial networks, time limitations for delivery of time-sensitive transmissions are established, in accordance with an assigned level of precedence, i.e., priority, of the respective transmissions, based on a Multilevel Precedence and Preemption (MLPP) scheme. In particular, Speed of Service (SoS) requirements are given for each level of precedence. However, conventional techniques used for controlling traffic flow in Internet Protocol (IP) based communication networks cannot guarantee compliance with the SoS requirements based on the MLPP scheme.
Therefore, despite the considerable effort in the art devoted to controlling traffic flow in communication networks, further improvements would be desirable.